Thanks to the Kindle, America is now hot and bothered from E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey. Here, history's most groundbreaking erotica by women

Released in May 2011 by an obscure publisher in Australia, Fifty Shades of Grey made headlines as the first erotic e-book phenomenon. The novel—which began as Twilight fan fiction and centers around a BDSM relationship between college student Anastasia Steele and billionaire tycoon Christian Grey—developed a tremendous word-of-mouth following among women. But what truly ignited sales, the Wall Street Journal noted, that the book's small print run made buying it digitally a necessity. Beyond that, e-readers gave people a veil of privacy. (In other words, no one could judge your book choice by its cover.) Now No. 1. on the New York Times combined Print & E-book Best Seller List, James' steamy novel—and the two other books in the trilogy—were recently purchased by Vintage Books for seven figures and will be widely available in print next month.

10 Books Taboo for Their Time

10 Books Taboo for Their Time

Fear of Flyingby Erica Jong

First published in 1973, Fear of Flying by Erica Jong introduced the world to the "zipless fuck"—a no-strings-attached sexual encounter between two strangers. "It is rarer than the unicorn," Jong's narrator, Isadora Wing, declares. "And I have never had one." A semiautobiographical novel about an unhappy housewife who gives in to her fantasies while on a trip to Vienna, Jong's book became integral to second-wave feminism and has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. And nearly 40 years after its publication, Jong's once-shocking novel seems relatively tame. "Now the girls of my daughter's generation have size 12 feet and booming voices," the author admitted in a 2006 interview. "They read my books and think, Why did my mother hide this from me? It's not that raunchy at all."